Valentine's Day: Special Advertising for a Special Occasion

Valentine's Day is around the corner and is a great opportunity for retailers. Rated as one of the major spending holidays for U.S. consumers, people of all ages and communities participate in the tradition of expressing their love (and spending their dollars). Retailers from a wide variety of categories bend over backwards to tie their product offerings, messaging and designs to the occasion. We looked at quite a few that were created by our designers to see how advertisers connect with their love-struck audiences!

Red and pink have always warmed peoples' hearts on Valentine's Day. This ad has the classic look with the colors and lots of hearts.

Valentine's Day is the second busiest of the year for florists after Mother's Day. In 2012, 224 million roses were sold for the holiday, according to U.S. florists' sales statistics, and 42 percent of them were red. Advertisers rely on this strong association and many of them—especially florists—use this symbol in their designs.

Restaurants are another big advertising segment for this holiday. In fact, the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association says 34 percent of couples visit restaurants to celebrate Valentine's Day. The ad below features all the special touches needed to lure couples into making reservations for candlelit dinner dates.

This ad design with a heart-shaped pizza effectively delivers the Valentine's Day message even if you don't speak French. Regardless of whether potential customers can understand every word of the message, they quickly get what kind of store it is, what they sell and what the tie-in is with Valentine's Day.

Gift options for this year's Valentine's Day are diverse as retailers in all categories try to drive sales. We've seen everything from gift certificates to nail spas to ultra-luxurious massage chairs. A chair doesn't immediately come to mind as a romantic gift but this approach can be effective depending on the target audience, whether that is working women or mature couples.

Occasions like Valentine's Day provide a wonderful opportunity for small- and medium-sized businesses to attract local audiences and sell products and services to meet or even create market demand during this special day.

What have you planned to market during this Valentine's Day and how will you promote the offer to your target audience? What are some of the best Valentine's Day promotions you've seen?

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